Roll on Friday. EURO 2016 can’t come soon enough. Such is the dearth of Brentford related news and, in equal measure, anticipation for this most hotly contested of tournaments that not even Friday’s opener between France and Romania being on ITV has dampened the enthusiasm. Even the news of the alleged England supporter’s band being present (shakes fist angrily at Sheffield Wednesday supporters) hasn’t detracted any .
On the domestic front we’ve had nothing more than the ‘fake’ fixture list and more rumours about Jake Bidwell leaving Griffin Park for Loftus Road to keep us entertained these last few days. Please note – your definition of ‘entertained’ may vary. Much in the way the England supporters band might have been said to have ‘entertained’ locals with their moribund parping and jingoistic greatest hits.
Sorry – but I can’t stand them. You’ll find better atmospheres in a decompression chamber. Who, honestly, thinks a game is enhanced by their unwanted presence? Who honestly thinks any game is helped by hearing the theme tunes from ‘The Great Escape’ or ‘The Italian Job’ repeated ad-nauseam, but not quite as you remember them? Not even ITV are that bad that they need their commentary team soundtracked by an off key version of the national anthem or 7 nation army. Something so cringeworthy that I won’t even dignify it with brackets.
With high profile sometime member Bernie Clifton boosted by a public renaissance following his appearance on TV’s ‘The Voice’ and then that album mix up with popular music’s Death Metal ensemble ‘Abhorrent Decimation’ – their track listing having been accidentally printed on the back of his recent ‘long player’ – could we see even more of this outfit than ever before?
I’m assuming Bernie is still part of this awful combo. Much like their setlist, they don’t appear to have actually updated their website since 2014.
That. Band. Banned
Much as an early exit for England will see the country distraught, the only slight benefit would be a simultaneous departure for that band.Frankly, I’d rather listen to Abhorrent Decimation. FA, if you are reading this (you aren’t) they don’t represent the vast majority of supporters.
As it happens, England are going to top their group. An opening game draw with Russia will be followed by victories over Wales and Slovakia, giving Roy’s boys 7 (seven) points out of a possible 9.
From there, they play ACD3. That’s not, infact, a really poor covers band but the third place team out of those groups. With C and D already looking like the proverbial groups of death, could it be all over by June 25? Or will England be cruising past the likes of A’s Switzerland, Romania or Albania into the quarterfinals?
Only time will tell, of course. With this tournament being one of the most open in years, the last 16 could see some intriguing match ups and big names falling. The heart says England to win it but the head is still backing Germany. Purely because I see so many tight games going to penalties and we just all know what happens there.
Back to the Bees, my own pre-season focus (until the proper fixture list comes out) remains on the new kit release. All we know so far is that it is in, that the club are working with a new sponsor, that both ‘home and away’ will be released on July 23rd and that ‘green’ is not involved. This time around.
Chief executive Mark Devlin dropped a further hint on Twitter last night, saying that :
new sponsor. A ‘marketed’ launch (come on, video…..)
I’ve mentioned the infamous Blackburn video before (#Birdysdate on Twitter should help you find this). Here’s hoping we are going down a similar route i.e. of trying some sort of video launch and, certainly, something different. It’s going to be a painful enough wait as it is – let’s hope it’s worth our while . I have no doubt it will….
Until then, of course, we’ve got that month of International football to look forward to. I cannot wait for it all to start on Friday night.
Nick Bruzon
Plug time (regular readers know the score from here) : As ever, The Last Word ‘season review’ : Ready. Steady. Go Again and the three year anthology : The Bees are going up remain available for download. Should anybody want to go over this nonsense, relive these moments once more and remind ourselves of the pain induced by ‘that band’ you can do so now.
It has been a stunning few years. Here’s to more of the same. We may have had a few lows (something about a penalty, the football village, the FA Cup, the pitch, the Marinus experiment) but there have been plenty more highs as the Bees made an unexpected challenge for the Premier League.
Thanks for reading.
BrentfordFC 
Bring on the Euros, sure it’s nice to enjoy a period of Bees detox but the TW8 news void is doing me in. I’ll take any game in France at the mo, i’ll even deal with another England flop just to have something to keep me going.
As for Roy’s boys, I don’t expect anything, but wouldn’t it be something if they could go a long way – maybe even stay in Europe for longer than the UK does……leave that band there though please.
It has been very quiet at GP since the Huddersfield game, which baring in mind the season we have just had, can only be a blessing! Looking at the BBC site the only story deemed worthy of reporting since the 5-1 win was Alan and his inhaler, and that was not really a story!
I haven’t really followed England’s football team for around 10 years now. The debacle in Germany in 2006 and the feeling that I cant really relate to any of the players, enhanced by exclusive ITV coverage of boring friendlies followed by boring qualification games, has meant that I haven’t watched an England game all the way through since about 2008. The inclusion of Wilshere, Lallana, Milner & Henderson does not inspire me to start to bother to watch them again this time. Although, I will make an exception & tune in to the Norn games just to watch Stuart Dallas, and I have always had a soft spot for Iceland ever since Ivar, Oli & Hermann.
Quite agree…I can’t bear the great escape theme either played by some half cut talentless numpty on the terrace! ….all it seems to achieve these days is us being knocked out of a tournament early.
I was expecting some follow up from the Benham tweet the other week about a possible signing. Am still none the wiser. And hopefully the Bees squad stays relatively intact this summer and we can genuinely improve the squad this time round.
Thanks Rob. There’s more chance of me building a space rocket than deciphering one of Matthew’s tweets. Plus, I missed it…. 😉